Cueto shines again on Royals' turf

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Walking back to the dugout after the top of the seventh in his trademark fashion – deliberately, with his cap inside his glove – Johnny Cueto was serenaded with a chant that must have sounded like celestial music to him.

“Cue-to! Cue-to!”

This chant had a distinctly different sound than the one Cueto heard at Toronto’s Rogers Centre last week, or at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park in the wild-card game two years ago. If those two postseason failures were the nadir of his career, this was the apex.

Displaying the kind of brilliance in big games the Kansas City Royals were hoping for when they acquired him in late July, Cueto smothered the New York Mets Wednesday, throwing a two-hitter for a 7-1 victory that put K.C. up 2-0 in the World Series.

Starting the night after his longtime pal Edinson Volquez left the team following the death of his father, Cueto retired 15 Mets in a row during one stretch and faced the minimum number of batters in seven of the first eight innings.